Life's Not Always Sunshine and Roses

Sometimes it's sunflowers!

It's been soooo gray and dreary here in San Antonio most of the winter, I decided to provide my own little bit of sunshine. Enjoy!

The title of this post is a metaphor, too, I think. I'm bad with those. My editor will tell you. And guess what? She just happens to be my special guest this month.

Some of you may recall my search for her a couple of years ago. Of course I didn't know who it would be at that time.

Anyway, I'm happy to introduce you to the editor I chose for The Amazing Gracie Trilogy - Susan Helene Gottfried at West of Mars.

Susan is amazing in her own right. She gets what I write. She knows her stuff. She makes me think. And she's fast. Or should that be quick? LOL!

Today she's talking about one of the things she sees a lot of from writers. And I'm certain she could make that sentence much better :)

She also makes me sound a lot cooler than I really am. I'll try to use her words as inspiration.

Here's Susan.

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   Let me start off my visit Under the Tiki Hut today by thanking Carol for hosting me. She and I have become friendly over the past few years, and I’ve become a huge fan. Being associated with someone as much fun, as professional, and as kind and friendly as Carol has been a very healing balm in my life. I hope some of you reading this will cross the interwebs and hang around my place, too; after all, like attracts like, right? And Carol’s attracted us both.

   But as much as I’d like to, I’m not here to gush about my awesome friend. I’m here to talk a little bit about editing, because that’s how I make my way through this world: I’m a freelance editor to authors of fiction.

   Good editing is expensive. We all know this, and if you don’t agree, or haven’t encountered it, I do hope you’re getting excellent work from whoever you’ve chosen to partner with.

   However, a number of authors I’ve been meeting of late have been using online forums as a means of subverting the editing experience.

   I have at times dabbled in these online forums, but I’ve found I’ve had to limit my time there. I’ve found it too frustrating to try to be a crowd-sourced editor.

What’s happening is that authors are posting snippets and hoping for feedback. But without the continuity of the rest of the work, many of their questions are impossible to answer. I can’t tell you if it’s better to say Papa, Father, or Daddy if I don’t know anything about the character who’ll be using those words.

   That’s because too often—which is another way of saying almost every single time—my reply to the author reads: It depends on the context, the voice of the character, the narrative flow, and other factors.

   Likewise, I can’t tell you if you should describe certain details without knowing if the narrator is the type of character—and yes, the narrator IS a character!—who will pay attention. It may seem inconsequential right now, but when a reader sits down with your book, they need for all the voices to be consistent. It doesn’t matter if five people on Facebook prefer using Dad to the other choices. It matters if the character or narrator—whoever will be using the word—sounds like him or herself when they utter that word.

   Fiction is intricate stuff. It doesn’t seem like it, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of revising and working with a really good editor, you want someone who will pay attention to these issues. You need to make sure that if you’re writing in the first person, the narrative voice matches the character’s dialogue, since the same person is speaking. You want to make sure they are acting consistently within themselves even though human beings are an inconsistent lot. There’s a line to toe here, and if you need help not teetering one way or the other, you need to know that the people you’ve lined up to work with you can handle what you’re going to throw at them.  

   So that’s why I’ve stopped hanging around the online groups. My problem isn’t that the writers are bad, it’s that I always want to see more so I can give the best answer for the author’s needs. On the surface, that’s what authors want, right? They’ve joined a group to get help, so what’s the problem?

   In many of these groups, doing so would be viewed as making an offer to work for the author, and self-promotion like this isn’t allowed. It’s almost a catch-22. Authors want the information to help them make the best book possible, but us editors? We’re not allowed to ask for a wider context, lest we be seen as soliciting clients unfairly, even when that’s not our intent. Personally, I think that a more in-depth back and forth with the author benefits not only the author but the editor as well, because it lets us see what people who aren’t our clients are struggling with.

   So I’ve had to walk away. I’m sad to have to, as I enjoy interacting with writers of all sorts, and that means my clients and those who aren’t. As much as I’d love to, I can’t edit the entire world of writers, after all.

   But for those of you who find that these online groups are working for you, keep in mind that maybe you can take your writing up another level by finding an editor who’ll help you understand the fine nuance that emerges when context is considered.

   Good luck and I hope you make smart decisions. If you need help or advice as you try to do so, don’t hesitate to reach out. Sometimes, being the best editor means knowing when to let an author hire someone else. 

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OK, I'm back again. A few more items to share.

In Name Only will be on sale for 99 cents February 19-25.
Please share with your friends and readers.

I'll be back here on Monday, March 5.

♥ Happy Valentine's Day ♥